Good Morning,

I have an April 16th class date with Pinnacle. I was hoping I could extract some info from the folks already working there (New Hires, Reserve Guys and Gals, and Line Holders). I am looking for up to date insights on employee attitudes and thoughts on working for the company.

Thanks

 

Insight #1-

Get info on employee attitudes and thoughts on working for the company before actually getting hired and start working for the company.

 

Sorry for the threadjack but what are your times? How was the interview process? I have applied but not heard back yet--I am at 1700 TT 50 ME and applied a couple of days ago.

 

I enjoy it here, and enjoy working here. There are things that can be better and we will fight to the end for them in our negotiations, but overall i am very happy with my decision to come here. I am at home, its easter sunday, and i will be spending time with my friends and family over a good ole easter dinner. Of course not everyone here at pinnacle can have weekends off, but after being here a year and a half i do, and about 14 days off average. not to shabby. I also heard the training dept is really getting some nice stuff. As in NO MORE PAPER TIGERS or those old beat up cpt's at flight safety. Heard from a buddy of mine they are ordering 6 of those touchscreen crj procedure trainers, that way during ground school you can actually use them then having to just watch the power point, and the wait till you get to the sim before you actually see what is going on. Should be pretty good.

 

I am starting my third week of training at pinnacle and I love it so far. Of course ground school is ground school, it'll never be too exciting anywhere, but I am enjoying it. I live in Memphis, so being at a home-based complany is great. They are getting electronic CPT's sometime near the end of april or early may. They pay $300 a week starting April 9, instead of $200. Also you get a $500 bonus 6 months after your checkride if you're still there. So, good things going on here. NWA can't afford to take airplanes away from us, so don't pay attention to the threats. We'll get a contract soon enough.

 

any chance of getting hired without the ATP written? I know they have been pretty stern about it in the past.

 

You're new at the Red Tail Orphans club. NWA does what it wants...period!!! They CAN afford to take planes away from anyone when they please, contract or no contract. They have before (MESABA...the other Red Tail) and they could again. Two of your 17 CRJ's you're getting "back" were ours.

I'm glad you "love it" there so far. But sleep with one eye open.

 

you show up with out it and they will tell say see you in 6 months.

 

Thanks for the advice XJ. I have a good friend who flies for Mesaba, and he said, which I agree with that NW could not give any of our 200's to you guys because Mesaba will not have the personel to staff or train for all those planes. With the 900's you guys have now, you're only spitting out a few crews a month. So, I really don't think NW can afford to take a ton of our planes away in an instant because we do so much of their flying. Of course they still could, anything can happen, but we do good business for NW. We'll see what happens, but I don't think we're going anywhere. Maybe I'm ignorant because I'm new, but being from MEM, I know about a dozen 9E pilots that say the same thing. On another note, I am glad to see Mesaba get off its feet again.

 

I love it here.. I just got off reserve in memphis this month (4 months total of rsv) - have all the weekends off.. Lots of flying (which is good for me), quick upgrades, and a great pilot group. Pay could be better but you can live (barely) on first year pay if you are single and live within your means. A pay raise and better QOL will come with the contract, that will happen within 6 months I predict.. As far as airplanes getting taken away, I have 2 thoughts there. First, NWA will not take em away b/c they need them in the system. Second, even if they took all 17 away tommorrow we would still not furlough- we would actually be staffed correctly for once. If you happen to live in MEM, DTW, MSP, or IND- or even one of the 9E served cities your commute won't be bad and you will enjoy your time here. This isn't a career place, but its a really smooth stepping stone. Enjoy your time here and if you need some help in training drop me a PM, I live in Mem and would be glad to meet up with you and explain stuff you may not understand.